Timex Group B.V. is the parent of Timex Group USA, Inc., formerly known as Timex Corporation until 2008. The latter is located in Middlebury, Connecticut, and began in 1854 as Waterbury Clock in Connecticut's Naugatuck Valley, known during the nineteenth century as the "Switzerland of America." [1] Waterbury, CT based brass manufacturer Benedict & Burnham created Waterbury Clock Company as a clock-making subsidiary in the advent of brass gears being introduced to clock-making. Waterbury Clock Company was legally incorporated on March 27, 1857 as an independent business with $60,000 in capital. Sister company Waterbury Watchmanufactured the first inexpensive mechanical pocket watch in 1880. During World War I, Waterbury began making wristwatches, which had only just become popular, and in 1933 it made history by creating the first Mickey Mouse clock under license from Walt Disney, with Mickey's hands pointing the time. This was made under theIngersoll brand.
Watches were not sold under the name Timex in the U.S until 1950. Over the next three decades, Timex watches were sold through a series of advertisements which emphasized durability by putting watches through "torture tests," such as falling over the Grand Coulee Dam or being strapped to the propeller of an outboard motor, with the slogan "It takes a licking and keeps on ticking." With the help of TV newscaster-turned-spokesman John Cameron Swayze, sales took off. The company later became Timex Corporation, then Timex Group USA, Inc., and, to date, has sold over one billion watches worldwide.